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Maintaining good oral care during the holidays can be tough with the bombardment of sugary sweets, sticky food, and delicious drinks during the season. Counting down to Christmas with an advent calendar is a fun activity for your kids, but if they are filled with chocolate and sweets, it won’t be so great for their teeth.

So, at Smart Smile Dental we’ve come up with 4 great tactics to make an advent calendar dental-smart as well as 8 bonus tips to make your holiday season a healthy and happy one for you, your loved ones, and their teeth!

At Smart Smiles Dental we will always try our hardest to restore knocked out (avulsed) teeth, but to do so we need your help – and the most important thing you can give us is TIME.

When a permanent tooth is knocked out, the less time it is out of the mouth the better. The best results are obtained when the tooth is replaced within 30 minutes and after an hour things begin to get dicey!

As part of Children’s Week (starting 21–29 October), Smart Smile Dental wants all Australians to know that healthy teeth in childhood is the first step towards healthy teeth in adulthood, less dental disease, and better overall health.

Children’s Week is an annual event celebrated in Australia during the fourth week in October and focuses the attention of the wider community on children, their needs, and achievements. In support of Children’s Week, Smart Smile Dental is highlighting the importance of looking after your teeth from an early age.

Dental cleaning is more than an elaborate version of your dental care at home. If you brush, floss and use mouthwash daily to keep your mouth clean, you may wonder why skipping your regular dental cleaning appointment is a big deal?

Routine dental cleaning is vitally important to the overall health of your teeth and gums. Without it, all your brushing and flossing at home can be ineffective for the prevention of oral health problems. Also, missing even one appointment might trigger serious dental and health issues.

What we call wisdom teeth are actually “third molars”, meaning those molars that usually appear in the jaw between ages 16 and 24, though sometimes they appear as late as the early 30s.

Unfortunately, when molars do finally try to break through your jaw and gums there is rarely enough room for them to fully come through. And while 65% of the general population has molars, some 85% of those teeth eventually require extraction.

At Smart Smile Dental, we are experts in assessing and treating wisdom teeth, from explaining the special care of them at home, to extraction if they become dangerous to your dental health.

Most of us live in a world filled with teeth staining foods we really enjoy, like coffee, tea, soda, and perhaps an occasional glass of merlot. And those foods, and many other things, can lead to yellow teeth.

Unfortunately, yellow, dull teeth can make you look and feel older. How do you keep your natural teeth in stunning condition? How can you prevent tooth staining?

First and foremost, you need to practice good dental hygiene by brushing and flossing. Regular checkups allow your dentist to spot trouble before it starts or to repair damage that has already occurred.

Most of us are no strangers to feeling that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done.

Your alarm clock rings and within minutes you are bouncing around trying to make sandwiches, answer your cell phone, remove the dog hair from your clothes, and make sure you are ready for work. Oral hygiene can easily fall to the wayside.

Which is why Smart Smile Dental would like to take the time to remind you that Dental Health Week is upon us again, and this year it focuses on Oral Health For Busy Lives. This is the perfect time to figure out how to balance your hectic schedule with your dental health needs.

It is safe to say that most people know that smoking cigarettes is bad for them and for their dental health. Similarly, we all know that if you don’t brush regularly, or don’t visit your Smart Smiles Dental dentist regularly, your dental health will suffer.

But how many of us know that tongue-piercings can threaten dental health (tooth displacement, chipping, infection, etc.)? Or that chewing dried fruits can be bad for our teeth?

To fully ensure our dental health, we need to be aware of ALL the habits that can harm it, particularly those habits we think might actually be good for us.

Proper oral care can keep you smiling well into retirement. Contrary to common belief, tooth loss is primarily the result of preventable oral disease and not an inescapable result of the aging process.
Taking care of your teeth can help them last a lifetime. Even if you are missing teeth, or have full dentures, dental care should be a key part of your overall approach to health.

Taking care of your teeth is an investment in your general health – scientists have discovered a strong link between dental health and good overall health. As you age, your dental needs become increasingly specialized, making regular visits to the dentist even more essential.

Dental anxiety is a common feeling among anxious dental patients, especially in children and new patients. A survey in the UK found that 36% of those who do not regularly see a dentist name fear as the main reason.

Dental fear is a problem that needs to be approached head on, as your oral hygiene is one of the keys to your general health. Because your mouth is the gateway to your body, it also affects your overall health – if your mouth is in poor shape it can lead to inflammation elsewhere in the body and even diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pneumonia.